Grace Under Fire
by braidsinherhair
Summary: Mai: I thought you ran off and joined the circus? You said it was your calling. Ty Lee: Well, Azula called a little louder. Mai and Ty Lee, surviving Fire Nation's most powerful and sociopathic princess. Drabbles.
1. prelude

I disclaim! Please to not be suing me!

* * *

"Until next time!" Ty Lee waved brightly from the mud pit in which Katara had mired and frozen her.

Katara sighed and waved back sadly as they flew away on Appa. "That Mai girl and Azula are two of a kind, but Ty Lee seems nice. I wonder why she stays with them."

Sokka shrugged. "They're all crazy she-devils? Her Scaryness has her family hostage? She's been sipping on the cactus juice? She can't think of anything better to do with her time? It's one of life's great mysteries. Do we have anything to eat?" He began rooting around in their stores until a tendril of water slapped his hand away.

Aang shifted in his seat on Appa's head. "Maybe she likes Azula? If anyone could, it's someone friendly like her."

Toph snorted. "Excuse me, but why do we care? If Little Miss Sunnysnot over there wants to braid daisies in Fireface's sister's hair, that's fine, but she's an enemy either way."

Katara sighed again. "Good point."

* * *

a/n: Just a little intro. seemed necessary. Do we like it? Dunno. Opinions welcome. 


	2. lessons

a/n: The rest of these will actually have Mai and Ty Lee in them, I swear.

* * *

The first time Azula visited home after being sent to the Royal Fire Academy for Girls, she had been gone about a month. Back on the palace grounds, she was semi-amazed at how little she'd missed home while she was away. And yet she missed the school not at all, either.

Her father, of course, was very interested in her progress and questioned her closely.

"Yes, we are studying anatomy at the moment, My Lord Father," Azula said from where she knelt. She kept her lashes lowered and her head in a slight bow, but her posture straight, and every now and then, when her father addressed her directly, she looked him in the eye to respond, as was her right as Princess. Azula kept very careful track rights, the ones she had as well as the ones she intended to possess. She thought briefly of Zuko.

"And how do you fare in your studies, daughter?" Prince Ozai asked, his voice rumbling from across his desk.

"I recieve the highest marks in my class. I have mastered all that my tutors have presented, as well as those lessons that they currently are teaching the ten-year-olds."

"Ah." It was what was expected of her. The next question surprised her. "And what of your friends?"

Silence for a moment. "Friends, My Lord Father?"

Prince Ozai made an impatient noise in the back of his throat. "You can learn history and protocol here, Azula."

She shivered at the use of her full name. "You... wish me to make friends."

"In time, it will become necessary for you to know people, and for them to know you. It will be important to have allies. The females with whom you now attend school will become the wives of powerful nobles, ruling houses. It will be important to know their strengths... and their weaknesses. A wife's weakness becomes her husband's weakness."

Azula thought of her mother and nodded. "I see, My Lord Father. I will make allies. I will learn everytihng about my classmates."

"See that you do. I had hoped you would discern this for yourself. Perhaps I overestimated you, Azula."

"NO! My Lord Father. I... I am sorry. I will not fail you again."


	3. playing with fire

a/n: Here we go. The meeting that started it all, and Azula making sure to get things off on the right foot.

* * *

Ty Lee was doing a handstand on a railing when Mai mentioned the Princess. "It's like she sees no one but the tutors. She ignores everyone else. She doesn't talk to anyone."

"She talked to me that one time!" Ty Lee said brightly, shifting so she balanced on one hand.

A fond smile on Mai was just a slight quirk of the lips, but it graced her face anyway. "Anyone would talk to you."

Ty Lee moved to her other hand. "I think that maybe --"

Azula was walking toward them, striding with a purpose. She stopped about a yard away from where the two girls were standing. And smiled.

She was only six, and hadn't quite gotten the hang of it yet.

Ty Lee recovered first. "Your Highness!" she exclaimed, flipping off of the railing to land before the Princess as behind her, Mai bowed primly. "So good to see you! How was your visit home?"

Azula tilted her head to the side. "Enjoyable. Listen. I am going home again next weekend, and I was wondering if you two would like to accompany me. My Lord Father said I could bring some friends." She attempted a winning smile. "And of course we are friends."

Mai and Ty Lee glanced at one another, and back at the Princess.

"Of course, Your Highness."

"We would be delighted!"

"Excellent," said Azula, beaming. "My Lord Father will be so pleased." This time her smile did not give the other girls chills.

"Oh, and Ty Lee?" she said, turning back and taking the girl's hand gently.

"Yes, Princess?"

"It is customary to bow before members of the royal family. For future reference."

"Y-Yes, your Highness. I will remember that."

"See that you do." Azula turned and walked away. The daughters of two of the wealthiest landed nobles in Fire Country, and they were clever to boot. Father would be em so /em pleased.

Behind her, Ty Lee cradled a dripping hand as Mai bound it with a scarf.


	4. pressure points

a/n: Hey! I got a review already! Thank you! This is definitely going to have to undergo some tweaking if I want it to be a cohesive story or even a good arrangement for drabbles, so please feel free to tell me what you think, what you like, what you don't like, and _why_. This part is just showing Mai protecting Ty Lee, and how all children manage to sound ridiculous when they try to sound knowledgeable about sex. My only worry is that they are perhaps a little adult for the children they are supposed to be, but they are very smart and forced to be adult due to politics and, in Mai and Ty Lee's case, close association with a dangerous, sociopathic princess. Thoughts?

* * *

Ty Lee was eight when she decided she wanted to become a masseuse. 

"Mother says that only common women learn 'pleasures of the flesh,' not ladies, but I told her that my lord husband might want a massage someday, and she said that it would be okay."

Mai nodded. "I bet she thinks it's better than wanting to run an inn like you did last year."

Ty Lee sighed. "All I want to do is make people happy. That's not such a bad thing, is it?"

Mai shook her head. "Of course not. I can't imagine you doing anything else."

It was then that Azula joined them on the Academy lawn. "What are we giggling about?"

Ty Lee, curtsying, beamed. "I'm going to be a masseuse!"

Azula smiled. "Really? The kind that gives sexual favors at the end?"

"I don't think that's what she meant," Mai snorted.

Ty Lee cocked her head to the side. "What?"

Azula rolled her eyes. "I heard from Andira that the only reason your mother agreed to let you learn is she hopes it will help you keep a husband. Your father cheats on her with anything with legs. Bet she wishes _she_ learned how to give massages."

Ty Lee frowned. "I still don't know what you're talking about."

Mai took out one of her blades and began to sharpen it, shaking out a handkerchief to catch the steel dust that inevitably would get all over her clothes.

Azula rolled her eyes. "Honestly, Ty Lee. Don't you know anything? Sex is the only thing adults think about. Father got me a tutor to teach me about it. You should learn, too. It's disgusting, but my tutor says it's one of a woman's most dangerous and subtle abilities."

Ty Lee's eyes widened. "Is it, like - "

Mai cut her off. "I'm not sure Ty Lee needs to know about that kind of thing just yet."

Azula frowned.

"I wouldn't presume to tell you what to say, of course, but Ty Lee's just a little more immature than we are." Mai kept eye contact with the princess for a moment before shrugging and looking at Ty Lee, still keeping her whetstone going. "Say, Ty Lee, they teach you about acupuncture, too, don't they?"

"Acupuncture? I read that accurate use can prevent use of limbs for periods of time." Azula did not mention the change in subject.

Ty Lee nodded eagerly, resolving to ask Mai about sex later. "Yes, I - "

"I trust you are working on developing its use in combat?"

Ty Lee nodded. Azula always was interested in how anything they learned could be used in combat. "You can even use it to stop someone from bending!"

Azula looked at Ty Lee sharply. "Really."

"Yes! I could show you!" Ty Lee stood up.

"Not on you, of course," Mai broke in abruptly. "What about Linore? She's always so... snooty."

Mai always recognized danger before Ty Lee.


	5. leverage

a/n: I went through and made some edits to the last couple of snippets, changed the order some, so if you're one of the, like, three people who read them, be sure to go mack to make sure you didn't miss anything. Chronologically this comes before the last bit I posted, but it expands upon the aspect of the interaction portrayed there, so it goes after.

* * *

Mai had grown adept over their association at picking up Azula's moods through the small cues she gave off in her speech and body language. Mai endeavored to ensure that Azula was never agitated at her. Or Ty Lee. Sometimes, though, it was not enough not to cause Azula's agitation. _Whoever decided to call it the 'Kick the Dog' theory didn't have courtiers_.When Azula needed to hurt something, Mai had to redirect the princess to someone else, usually one of their hapless classmates. 

The only problem was that Mai was not always able to keep Azula from hurting Ty Lee, not when Mai was part of the cause of Azula's agitation. Like this morning, when Azula singed half of Ty Lee's left arm in an "accident" involving candles and the Headmistress' spectacles.

Mai was contemplating her failure while sitting under a tree on the school lawn when Azula walked up to her, smiling as if she had not just sent Mai's dearest friend to the waterbender that the school kept on retainer. "Your Highness." Mai inclined her head, hands gently resting on her lap, relaxed. Right next to four tiny sheathed knives.

Azula tilted her head, hands slightly apart and flexed. Ready. "I thought we could take a turn around the grounds, since we so rarely spend time just the two of us."

Mai was thinking furiously even as she shrugged her acquiescence and stood, deliberately lacing her fingers together in pointed nonaggression. Azula never did things without a reason. The girl was nothing if not methodical. Time just the two of them? Think, think...

"So, Mai." Azula smiled. "How are... things?" Thinking, thinking...

Azula was very good at picking out weaknesses and exploiting them. Mai had learned this through observation, one of her most precious talents. Perhaps more precious than her aim. It all came down to the eyes, anyway. Mai understood all at once that if Azula perceived her only weakness to be Ty Lee, she would use the girl mercilessly, thinking that she had no other leverage. Whenever Azula needed to take Mai down a peg, she aimed at Ty Lee. Even if she was not looking for Mai's weaknesses at this second, Azula would need something else unless Mai wanted Ty Lee to need to visit the chirurgeon's every time Mai made a mistake. Scrambling for an option, she asked, "So... how is your brother?"

Azula stopped short and looked at Mai. "My... brother?"

Praying to whatever deity would give a damn that she hadn't been too obvious, she nodded. "What was his name again?" She managed a blush.

Azula was a fast thinker, although not quite as clever as Mai. "Zuko. But I think you already knew that, Maaaaaaaiiiiiii."

At the teasing tone of Azula's voice, Mai closed her eyes as if embarrassed, silently giving thanks to... whoever had been listening to her prayers. "He seems very... tall." She made herself stutter, just a touch, but enough that Azula would notice.

Azula smiled like a cat. "He is... tall, isn't he?"

Mai just hoped that it would be enough.


End file.
